Left for Dead 68 Barracuda Buildup

It has been some time since I have been here but I did get a chance to do some
work on the car last night for a change.
I decided to start by modifying the engine bay to ready for the engine
test fit. My car was a factory AC car so I started by welding up a few holes that
shouldn't be there on a non AC model. Then I went on to clearance/beat the shock
support area for valve cover removal room.
All of the original work I've seen from Hurst in this area has been rough at best and
even rougher on some others. So I didn't feel the need to make it to nice or pretty.
I will post a few pictures of the steps I used to get where I needed to be. I feel I have
moved enough metal but will know for sure when engine is set in.
Basically I made a cut and drilled some spot welds to fold in the sheet metal to get
to the thicker shock mount behind. Fired up the smoke wrench and cut a thin triangle
out of the front and rear side of the thick shock brace. I know this is crude but it works and
I feel the look in the end is what I wanted.
With the triangles burned out I continued heating the brace till it glowed orange and bashed it in with a heavy hammer. It moved easy and while it was still hot I mig welded the hammered closed cuts solid again.
Next I folded the sheet metal flap back in place and welded it solid and buffed it mostly smooth. I didn't make it too perfect as it was about to get hammered in to the trimmed
shock mount. After the beating I welded the drilled spots back in.
The pictures will show it better than words.
Then I moved on to some blasting. My blasting equipment is light duty and takes
a lot of time. It does a good job without going fast enough to heat warp anything.
I will have many many hours ahead of me at this pace getting the car cleaned.
I feel a motor to pump speed change is needed on my compressor to shorten the recoupe
time. This takes more air than anything I have done with my compressor and It will run constant
If I don't give it a break.
I did buy a good hood so I can now stand to blast longer than I want my compressor to run.